HOPE OF THE BLIND.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 901, 22 August 1910, Page 8

HOPE OF THE BLIND.

AUCKLAND'S INSTITUTE. There are certain tilings in Auckland that every visitor to that city makes a point of .seeing, the Art Gallery, Cornwall Park, the. crater in Mount Eden, and tho,harbour. No visitor should miss Auckland Harbour, or another most admirublo institution, the Jubilee Institute for tho Blind—the only place in New Zealand whero a 'blind person can bo thoroughly trained to support himself. ■ The building, a-large and handsome one of brick and white stone, which has replaced the old , inadequate wooden structure of two years ago, stands on the. road in grounds of sufficient extent to accommodate many workshops, and yet leave ample room for • playgrounds, a very necessary provision since the boys and girls keenly enjoy outdoor games. There'is no suggestion of crowding anywhere in the building, dormitories, bathrooms, diningronm, schoolrooms, and corridors; all are large and airy, and as cool as i 6 possible in the summer heat. Even'the dour, that separates the girls' part of the first floor l'rnrh the boys' is of "wrought iron, so that the breezes may blow through, and all round tho house are wide verandahs and. balconies. The bedrooms are beautifully clean and neat, and in front'of each little white bed stands a small cupboard, ou top of which the child may keep her small treasures and ornaments. They like these, and they liked the' cards and pictures on tho walls. of,'the old home, which have not yet been placed in the' new. Thechildren are encouraged to dress, themselves, keep, their things in order, and to do as niuch for themselves and for others as possible. This is one of the most important' parts of their training. Too often the parents and friends of n blind child will wait on it.almost slavishly from its infancy," never realising that even a "sighted" child only learns by practice to use its limbs and its intelligence, and so the institute has some.times to teach quite a well-grown child the first elements of' self-help, when years of dependence on others havo rendered it inert-and distrustful of its own powers. The training of - the children goes on all day long at the institute, with tho result that they are very deft and capable, i'or one thing, they have to help to clear the tables after every meal, and it is interesting to seo how quickly, they' perform a task that, in the hands of a careless "sighted" person, too often leads to disaster.

:Their school, course.is practically the same as in other schools. In the lower classroom, when n Wellington visitor looked on for an hour,;the children were reading from their large Braille lesson'J books, some picking the words out pain-, fully, others covering the ground in good style. It was curious to watch the children, as they, sat at their desks, their fingers on the pages of'their,books,"'while with rapt, far-away expression in their unseeing eyes, they gazed at the walls, at the teacher, anywhere'but at the page from which their nervousi seeing fingers read.' They seemed contented- enough, and it was with evident, gusto that one small girl spelled out a passage from, a fairy tale, about "two handsome princes," What did the word handsomu represent to horK

Geography is taught by means of raised maps, such as one sees in museums, and the blind child, whose fingers roam over hills," mountains, and valleys, along rivers, and'among islands and hays, probably has a much dearer idea of the appearance of a country than the "sighted" child, who learns of Europe as a fiat patch with indented edges;' divided into smaller patches of different colours, with black rivers threading through. Arithmetic is learned by means of a curious board with oddly-shaped holes and pegs, and one can believe that these children got more mental exercise out of these lessons than do the "sighted" ones, for Inental arithmetic plays a large (part in their course.

One.-of-the older 1 students was having a lesson in Euclid.with cardboard'tri'angles.': It, was; the infamous fifth proposition - .that was, "engaging his attention, in a way that- evidently satisfied his teacher.

It is pleasing to know that these pupils can go through an ordinary school course, arid oven, as in the caso of one student of whom the institute is proud, go. on through a university course if they desire it, but one questions whether,.speaking generally, it is.worth while to stick so closely to the course prescribed for sighted, pupils, whether',in'place of anything more than elementary arithmetic, for instance, they might not have .more food for tho imagination.

All day long a keen-witted, sighted child is taking in- through her eyes .materialM:hat, in her small brain, may be transmuted into fairy* gold, but tho blind child must be artificially fed. The pictures glanced at, faces, flowers, houses full of expression, gardens quickly passed by, animals, petted and otherwise, trees, the clouds,''the sky, tho sea, and long, straight roads, all these provide her with material for a!' thousand fancies, and from all these tho little blind child,, however imaginative,. is shut out. The door must be opened for her by others, and ono feels that at least an, hour.a day devoted to fairy : tales,, descriptions of" places,. or accounts of heroic deeds, would not be out of plare in a blindschool course,: while a cordial welcome mighr>be extended to visitors who would come and tell stories out of school bouts, a work which surely.many Auckland folk would enjoy. It must not be supposed, that the children are. not happy; .. They. do.not. misa the stories they do. not .hear,-and they are a very contented company. They sing and play, and.recite,.and they give many little concerts not only in' the huge, dining-room, where a. little platform has been erected, but even at other, 'institutions where, their performances afford very much treasure... . /'. ' In the larger schoolroom are displayed many" of the articles in. bead-work made by the children, mats and baskets, all cleverly, worked,. while from a cupboard is produced a set of dolls'-, furniture—sofa, tables, and. jugs—made most beautifully of wire and coloured beads. '- ' " '.....'. One would like these to bo exhibited in Wellington some day; They would certainly cause much -interest. Shorthand and typewriting aro taught, and .many of the pupils have become very efficient, in the system of Braille shorthand. Other pupils have been very successful at the examinations.-,of the Royal' Academy, and Eoval College of Music. • . Beyond the school are the workshops, perhaps the most interesting part of tho •institution. Here are baskets mado by the girls, with . wicker . chairs and tables made bv the 1 men, and'.next door is the; large room where jute doormats aro made. .It is not, perhaps, generally known that orders for doormats and huge hall mats from all /parts of tho Dominion am constantly sent ,to" the institute. The regulation price; is always carefully charged' for the work of the institution, which has no- desire 'to undersell its competitors. Wellington people are' probably familiar with, another product of the institute, tho rope-fend-ers used by ships.- ;■ .'. ■' A comparatively new industry is the making of chip strawberry boxes; a work carried out entirely by blind men. The report presented last year by_ the, very capable and energetic principal, Mr. Fravling, stated that for the season 218,000 boxes had. been manufactured, 37, miles of steel wire, having been used m the task. That year-an arrangement had been made with the Fruitgrowers Asso-. ciation of Auckland, and since then "other growers have been glad, to avail themselves of the,institute's services. For the student .who has a truo ear piano-tuning offers itself as an opening,, and there are several pupils now learning pinno-tuning and. organ-tuning and repairing. This is work for which a man is not handicapped' by his blindness, and every encouragement'should be given to those" who.enter it. Tho. blind tunor knows as much about his mano as does the'"sighted"man,-.and he is quite as well able to juggle with its parts, takoWt to-pieces, and put it together again. ■ ~',,, ... The industry and output of the institute 'is enormous!' and one has to see something of its work to realise how. efficiently it is managed, and what are its possibilities of development. A great deal has boon done in tho past few years and one' may expect tf. seo its work gTcatlv extended ill •■ tho future. Meantime, visitors' to Auckland should make a point of seeing how useful lives that hnvc been sevorcly handicapped may becomo with oaroful training.